Photo Coverage: First Look at War Horse in Toronto

Early Monday morning a select group of journalists and Mirvish subscribers were given an exclusive sneak peek at ‘Joey’, the seven foot tall star of the Tony Award-winning production of War Horse that will have its Canadian Premiere in February of 2012.

The event took place at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, and BWW was on hand to bring you pictures of Joey and his creators. Joey was brought to life by Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones, who together founded and run the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa. The two creators joined David Mirvish to introduce Joey to Toronto and speak to the crowd about the production.

War Horse is based on the First World War novel by Michael Morpurgo and follows a young man’s quest to find his beloved horse, which has been sold to the cavalry. Already a hit on London’s West End and in New York City, Toronto audiences are in for a real treat when the show premieres next winter.

Joey is an extraordinary sight, as the horse is so incredibly life-like one could easily forget that it is a puppet. The body is controlled by two puppeteers on the inside while a third controls the movements of Joey’s head. The horse looks, acts and sounds life-like – and it is magical to see on stage. In fact, Joey is so life-like he can even be ridden, as demonstrated by local journalist J. Kelly Nestruck who hopped on stage and had his first horse riding experience.

All in all the event was a smashing success, with everyone in the room embracing the puppets (and especially Joey) whole-heartedly. David Mirvish smiled as he recounted a story about how it was Mirvish subscribers who alerted him to the show in the first place: "I want to thank you the public, and the subscribers, for keeping your eyes open for us." This sentiment set the tone of the event, as it seems fitting that one of the few Canadian cast sit-down productions Toronto has seen in awhile came to fruition by virtue of Toronto's avid theatre-goers. Don’t miss out on your chance to see this amazing show when it roars into The Princess of Wales this February.